Neymar has no interest in being the best player at the World Cup if it meant Brazil won the Cup on home soil. Quick and skilful, and in many ways the face of this World Cup, Neymar faces intense pressure to lead the widely fancied Brazil team

The FIFA World Cup is only a week away, and is sure to be filled with action packed soccer moments, but will it draw in the record crowds other sports events tend to see? Goviva president Robert Tuchman joins the News Hub

There are many ways to predict which countries will prosper the most and which the least, but one of the most revealing ones is how many applications for patents of new inventions were filed. Latin American countries are filing very few patent applications

Granted, the world needs to find new ways to protect itself from any government intrusion. But, just as important, countries in Latin America should be spending more of their energies into updating their Internet technologies

A joke making the rounds in Latin American business circles says Brazil is looking increasingly like Argentina, Argentina is looking increasingly like Venezuela, and Venezuela is looking increasingly like Zimbabwe. Are things really going that bad?

It's no wonder that protesters in Brazil held signs reading 'more education, less soccer,' or that there are constant teacher strikes in Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Mexico - Latin American schoolteachers are among the most miserably paid in the world

Perhaps Secretary of State John Kerry's lack of attention to Latin America might not be so bad after all - it is moving Vice President Joe Biden to get more involved with the region, and may help turn U.S.-Latin American relations into a White House foreign policy priority

The exodus of young Latin American entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley and other U.S. technology centers may soon become a two-way street as growing numbers of American techies are heading south to benefit from generous aid packages for high-tech startups

Latin American presidents who support decriminalization of marijuana won a big diplomatic victory in recent days when the 34-country Organization of American States issued a report that considers that option as one of several policies that might help reduce the region's drug-related violence

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos may not have been hallucinating when he said that the Pacific Alliance - the bloc made up of Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile - 'is the new economic and development engine of Latin America and the Caribbean'

The highly respected Nature Scientific Reports journal has just published a map of the world's leading science cities, and it looks pretty bad for emerging countries: It shows the planet's northern hemisphere full of lights, and the south almost solidly dark

New economic projections from the World Bank and the United Nations show that Latin America countries will keep growing at moderate rates this year, except for the booming economies of Paraguay, Panama and Peru

In most Latin American countries, companies complain about the shortage of well-trained engineers. And the experience of China, India, Taiwan, and other Asian countries shows that producing large numbers of engineers pays off

Even before the United States and Brazil begin their quest for Olympic glory in volleyball, one of them is virtually assured of gold, though this time around the event has been robbed off some of its sheen as Cuba failed to qualify

Two new studies confirm what we have long suspected: Latin American companies cannot effectively compete in the world economy because their countries' educational systems are totally disconnected from reality

President Obama's announcement that he will seek to create what may be the world's largest trading bloc along the Pacific rim raises an interesting question in this part of the world: whether we will see a de facto split of Latin America into a Pacific and Atlantic bloc

Colombia, traditionally Washington's best ally in the region, is cozying up to Brazil and building a solid commercial, financial and political network with its neighbor while Washington becomes more and more isolated

A new United Nations report has good news for Latin America: it says that poverty levels in the region have dropped to their lowest levels in 20 years. But are the U.N. figures about Latin America as great as they sound?

Prosperity, security, and a lowered level of poverty generally accompany economic growth; however, Brazil's economy, though growing rapidly, is experiencing record inflation and an appreciating currency. However, the practical consequences of a sudden currency appreciation can prove to be ominous, often contributing to greater economic insecurity

Across Latin America, governments are hailing security gains against organized criminal groups. Yet in spite of more arrests, criminal networks are stronger and criminality just as pervasive, suggesting that another reality lies behind the numbers.

Brazil's announcement that it will send 100,000 science and engineering students to get advanced degrees abroad went almost unnoticed, but it's worth paying attention to -- it's the kind of thing that will determine which countries will get ahead in the knowledge-based 21st century

With two years to go before the World Cup in Brazil, already people are questioning the massive evictions caused by the Cup's enormous infrastructure projects and the legal privileges that must be conceded to the all-powerful FIFA

With a little under a year remaining until the next U.S. presidential election, a coherent and sustainable area policy toward Latin America remains absent from the campaign literature and both parties' electoral strategies

Brazil has been making great strides toward securing a prosperous future, but one of its recent actions has centered on resolving a troubling aspect of the country's past. On October 27, state officials announced a plan to establish a truth and reconciliation commission that will investigate crimes against humanity from 1946 to 1988

A major strategic challenge for the United States in the coming decades will be integrating emerging powers into international institutions. The dramatic growth of Brazil, China, and India -- and the emergence of middle-tier economies such as Indonesia and Turkey -- is transforming the geopolitical landscape and testing the institutional foundations of the post-World War II world order

Brazilian business leaders have concluded that the answer to the region's education problems is not likely to come from governments -- or from politicians -- but from civil society. Digging deeper into the Brazilian pro-education movement, I found that Brazil's civil society has been more pro-active than that of other countries in the region

A new World Bank study is likely to raise high hopes in Brazil, Argentina, Peru and other South American commodity exporters. It says that, contrary to the recent conventional wisdom, raw materials can be the engine of long-term economic growth. But is it true? Or is it World Bank wishful thinking?

Brazil's self-proclaimed diplomatic victory in Iran led pundits to speculate that the South American country has become a major new player in world affairs. But they were most likely wrong, or at the very least spoke to soon.

The agreement reached in which Iran would send about half of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey to be enriched signaled a new unity in the leadership in Tehran, says analyst Farideh Farhi. She says that while the regime continues to worry about its perceived legitimacy domestically, the agreement with Brazil and Turkey has strong public support

A short news item in Brazil's news magazine Veja suggests that President Luiz In‡cio Lula da Silva is considering running for United Nations Secretary General after he leaves office at the end of this year. If true, that would explain a lot of things.

With Brazil's government-backed presidential hopeful Dilma Roussef rising in the polls, some of her most prominent critics are raising the specter that South America's biggest country will move closer to the radical left if she wins the October elections

Only a few months ago, Latin American leaders hailed the Obama administration as a new beginning in hemispheric relations. But now, the honeymoon is over as Brazil is leading criticism of U.S. foreign policy

To believe that capitalism and the United States are in an inexorable decline as Venezuela's ruling party states and a surprising number of Latin Americans believe, flies in the face of reality. In fact, the opposite is true

If you think that Latin America is doomed to remain behind in science, technology and innovation - as one could conclude from the latest international rankings of patents of new inventions - you should meet Luis Von Ahn

Brazil will have to stop being an inward-looking giant. Brazil can't keep relying on its domestic consumption either, nor on ever-rising commodity prices. If it doesn't cease being a self-absorbed giant, it risks becoming a once-emerging power

A new study on corruption in Latin America contains some alarming figures -- an average of about 20 percent of the region's people say they have been asked to pay a bribe by a policeman or another public official in the past year

After decades of peace and economic development, why is the United States engaged in a major military buildup in Latin America? Why has the U.S. turned a blind eye to two successful, and one attempted, coups in the last three years?

We all know what conventional economists say about the future of Latin America: countries that pursue populist policies will go downhill, whereas countries that pursue 'responsible' economic policies will do great

Producing feed for 500 million pigs is no mean feat and China's agricultural sector is already operating at its limits. As a result China has been forced to look abroad for its animal feed, in particular for soya beans

Residents of one Bahian quilombo clashed with members of Brazil's military. The inhabitants of Quilombo do Rio do Macaco drew media attention as officials from the Aratu Naval Base encroached on the community's fringes

Condoleezza Rice, whose boss President George W. Bush vowed during the 2000 campaign to make Latin America a 'fundamental commitment' of his presidency, devotes only two of the 58 chapters of her memoir 'No Higher Honor' to the region. That's about 15 pages of the 766-page book, plus a few sporadic references here and there

IBSA, comprised of India, Brazil, and South Africa, has improved trade and cooperation among the countries since 2003 IBSA is notable for its South-South cooperation and anti-hegemonic rhetoric However it is not necessarily an easy model for other Southern nations

There is a little-noticed but potentially important development in Latin America's human rights front -- Brazil, the biggest country in the region, is becoming a little less supportive of tyrants around the world

Latin America should take a close look at the latest U.S. technological innovation figures: They show that, despite signs of progress in several countries, the gap between Asian and Latin American countries keeps widening

Every year brings about changes, but 2012 is likely to be an especially eventful one in the Americas: there will be elections in the United States, Mexico and Venezuela, as well as other news events that could change the political map

A new ranking of Latin America's best universities shows that Brazil is way ahead of the pack, with the No. 1 school and 65 of the best 200 in the region. It suggests that Brazil may become 'the next university superpower'

The turmoil for reform sweeping most Middle Eastern oil producers is grabbing big headlines today, but that region may lose some of its economic clout in the future: there are signs that the Americas will replace the Middle East as the world's biggest oil-producing region

I read a press report that Brazil's tourism minister was illegally using a government driver as his wife's private chauffeur. By the time I arrived in Brasilia seven hours later, the minister had already been sacked. What a difference with what is happening in many other Latin American countries

In what could give a blow to government's ambitious plan to boost national energy production, a Brazilian federal court ordered immediate halt of $11 billion Belo Monte hydroelectric dam's construction, saying it could affect local fishing

There is no longer any question: wealth and power are moving from the North and the West to the East and the South, and the old order dominated by the United States and Europe is giving way to one increasingly shared with non-Western rising states. But if the great wheel of power is turning, what kind of global political order will emerge in the aftermath?

Across the region in recent years, the United States has seen its influence decline. Latin American countries are increasingly looking for solutions among themselves, forming their own regional organizations that exclude the United States and seeking friends and opportunities outside of Washington's orbit. Some allies are even reconsidering the primacy of relations with the United States

I recently returned from a trip to South America, where I was struck by the ways in which Chile and Brazil, the two countries I visited, have, on key issues like defeating poverty, transcended the tired division between left and right the United States seems hopelessly mired in

Following the recent decisions by Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Ecuador to officially recognize a state of Palestine, supporters of the Palestinian cause are preparing for their next big step: a South America-wide declaration recognizing a Palestinian state in a territory that would include East Jerusalem and other territories currently held by Israel

In the last decade, Brazil has recast itself as a global brand and a global power. Brazil is home to the world's fifth-largest land mass and eighth-largest economy and is one of the top global producers of stuff everyone else needs. The new conventional wisdom suggests that Brazil is now poised to make its name on the global stage

When the presidents of Brazil, Mexico and Argentina attended the G-20 meeting of the world's biggest economies in South Korea, they should have taken some time off from the conference to take a look at the host country. They could have learned why South Korea has done so much better than their own nations

Brazil, the United States and the Organization of American States deserve a gold medal each for their awful handling of recent presidential elections in Honduras. Let's examine how the main international players behaved ...

The news that Brazil and Mexico have come out of the recession and are poised for solid growth in 2010 should be celebrated, and both countries' leaders should be given credit for their sound economic management. But in the global economic context, the two Latin American giants' recovery will be modest.

Brazil's Vice President Jose Alencar made big headlines recently when he stated that Brazil should have the right to have nuclear weapons, which he said would give his country a greater 'dissuasive' power and more 'respectability' in world affairs.

In 2003, a report authored by Goldman Sachs economists popularized the term BRICs -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- to describe a whole new category of emerging-market powerhouse. The report argued that with sound political leadership and relative international stability, the BRIC economies would together outpace the original G6 industrialized nations in dollar terms by 2040 -- a fundamental shift in the global balance of power. Since then, these four countries have assumed ever-greater importance in the international investment community's collective imagination.

The financial crisis has left few corners of the global economy unscathed, but many of the loudest cries reflecting the deepest pain are largely ignored. These are the cries of the world's poorest citizens whose suffering is not measured in battered portfolios and retirement plans but in their daily survival

Brazil, Latin America's biggest country, has received well-deserved praise in recent years for its responsible economic policies. There is hardly a dictator -- or repressive government -- that Brazil doesn't like, human rights groups say.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's largely unnoticed trip to Central America last week underscored an interesting phenomenon: Brazil is making big inroads into a region that was traditionally seen as Mexico's backyard

Brazil, India and even China will not be able, by themselves, to correct the dysfunctions that produced the global crisis. But it is true that the economic power of these three countries can mitigate its negative consequences. ...